Pipa's Annual Visit!

Every year my father comes to visit us for a week. I love having this time with him and look forward to it every year. Unfortunately, this year he had to actually stay at my brother's house since we are not in our own home right now. Good thing he has an upstairs with three bedrooms and a bathroom that he never uses!!

Anyhow, we were still able to spend some quality time with each other and it's always great when the kids see him, since it's not all that often.

Here are some pictures from his visit:

We had a great week, but like all great things, it had to come to an end. I miss you already, Dad. can't wait to see you again.

Mother's Day

For Mother's day, hubby had the great idea of having a family picnic at a local park. Unfortunately, only hubby's side of the family was able to make it, but we still had a great time!

Anyhow, we rented out one of the park shelters for the day. We were able to get a great one that was a short walking distance to the playground and restrooms and also had it's own green space around for playing. Everyone chipped in and brought hot dogs with all the fixings, different salads, chips, drinks and watermelon. Actually, we ended up with FOUR large watermelons!!

The kids had lots of fun playing various games around the shelter with items supplied by my sister-in-law; baseball, horseshoes, catch, bubbles etc.

We walked over to the playground and had even more fun there. The food was great, as was the company and conversation.

While there we also did a combined mini birthday celebration for all the May birthdays we have in this family; five including mine. All the birthday girls had a cupcake with a candle in it and we all sang. Everyone opened their gifts and polished off their sweets.

It was very hot, but it was lots of fun!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Today is the big day...my birthday...and not just any birthday, it's the BIG THREE-OH!!!!

Blah Blah...I feel like I'm 20 - so there!!

With the exception of my baby boy not feeling well (he is very congested now, has started coughing and his little voice is hoarse, poor thing) I have had a great day!

My dad is here visiting and it's been a while since I've been able to celebrate my birthday with him here so this was a very special treat!

So, my dad, mom, hubby, kids big bro and sister in law went out for dinner at Asian Fusion Buffett. The restaurant was my choice, mainly because they have a HUGE sushi bar there and it is all you can eat!!! Believe me, I ate all I could eat :)

So dinner was great and then we went back to my mom's house (aka our pseudo "apartment") for cake and presents.

hubby got me a delicious chocolate cake (my favorite!) and I got some really awesome gifts; a new bath wrap and lotion, a Cricut cartridge, the BIG Cricut cutting mat, needles for my sewing machine, a quilting ruler, a marking pen for sewing, some really cute Capri pants, a nice pair of sandals, a few comfy pajama sets, some beautiful jewelery and money to buy anything else my little heart desires :) .... which will probably be more sewing and scrapbooking stuff :)

So, yeah, I was downright SPOILED!!! And I loved it!! :)

Another Scary Seizure

Unfortunately, J had another seizure yesterday.

He woke up Wednesday morning at about 7:30 a.m. and felt a bit warm to me. I took his temp and it read 99.0. I normally would not give my kids any medication for a fever as low as this, but because of the past febrile seizure I didn't want to take an chances. I gave him a dose of Tylenol and went about our day. At this point he had no indications of any other sickness at all. By lunch time I began to notice his nose was a bit runny and he was beginning to sound a little congested. At 1:30 p.m. I gave him another dose of Tylenol even though he did not have a fever by then.

At about 4:30pm he began to feel like he was warming up again. Since I had just given him the Tylenol at 1:30pm, it was too soon yo give him anything else. I was holding him next to me as he napped at this point.

At around 5 he was really feeling HOT against my skin, so I decided to check his temp again. It was 102.9. I gave him a dose of Motrin at exactly 5pm. At 5:03pm, he had a seizure.

Just like the first seizure, it was as though he knew it was about to happen. He woke from his sleep, eyes as wide as saucers with a terrified look. He then opened his mouth wide, screamed and the seizure began.

With the seizure he had in January, his eyes rolled back and his whole body shook uncontrollably. It lasted just barely over a minute. He lost consciousness and took about half hour before he would cry. It then took quite a few hours before he was acting normal again.

This time, his eyes rolled back, his little hands clenched into fists, his arms pulled up against his chest and his head and arms jerked violently. He drooled a lot and turned blue around his entire mouth area. ti lasted for about 45 seconds to a minute. When it was over, he gasped for breath and immediately began to cry.

Although I knew they probably could not do anything, we rushed him to the Emergency Room.

They did not do any of the tests that had been performed the first time, they only did a chest x-ray. The radiologist who checked the x-ray claimed that it looked as though he may have pneumonia, but maybe not. I was SO mad at that, what was I supposed to with that (lack of) information????

Anyway, they gave us a prescription for Zithromax for the "pneumonia" and said to follow up with our pediatrician and a pediatric neurologist.

We did not fill that prescription right away as I wanted the opinion of our pediatrician whom I trust.

So, this morning we went in to see Dr. Thole. She looked him over and said his lungs sounded great and did not think he had pneumonia. She called the hospital to get a copy of the film and the report just in case. After reviewing everything she felt confident that he in fact did not have pneumonia, but a viral infection. The antibiotics would not be of any help.

She recommended a pediatric neurologist and we already have an appointment...for JUNE! At least it's June 2nd and not the end of June.

Anyhow, the pediatrician just feels that this is simply febrile seizures. Unfortunately there is nothing we can do about except wait for him to "outgrow" them. sadly that could take until age six so we have a long way to go.

Just to be thorough and be sure there is not something more serious going on, we will be seeing the neurologist. I will be sure to write an update next month.

Please pray that this does not happen again, it breaks my heart to see his little body go through that.

18 Month Check up

Today J had his 18 month well visit with the pediatrician.

He is now 18 pounds, 28.75 inches tall and his head circumference is 17.5 inches. All three measurements are in the fifth percentile on growth charts. He's little but he is steadily growing so doc says he is doing well.

As far as his development, the pediatrician has told us time and again that boys are very different than girls in the way they develop. What may be delayed development in a girl may actually be average for a boy.

That being said, she says his fine motor skills and gross motor skills are actually slightly advanced for an 18 month old boy....which translates to average for an 18 month girl :)

However, even for a boy she feels his speech is delayed. He does try to say things but just can;t seem to get it out. He does extremely well with imitating sounds like the melody of a song etc, but can not actually form many letter sounds.

He can currently say "Mama", "Dada" "nana" (for banana), "u" (for up) and "ba ba" (for bye-bye). He can sign "again", "please", "thank you", "bath" and "cracker".

Anyhow, she did mention speech therapy however she would like to wait until he is two. She thinks that he actually may "catch up" since he does attempt to make the sounds. Plus she does not feel that at this point in time a speech therapist could do much more for him than we already do. We already name everything, point things out, repeat the words slowly and clearly etc. There is no physical reasoning for his speech delay (not "tongue tied" or anything like that) so he may just be a late bloomer. If at his two year check up his speech is still delayed (for a 2 year old boy at that point) then she will make sure we get him speech therapy.

We also brought up some issues.

First is the issue of his sleep habits. J is really great at going down to sleep at night. Every night we have dinner, give him a bath, read him a story and then lay him down in his crib while he is still wide awake. We leave the room and within a few minutes he sound asleep. No fussing, no crying, no whining. Just straight to sleep. Wonderful, right? Only he is up screaming and crying about 3/4 hours later. If I go in to him, I can nurse him and put him back in bed, but then he gets up about 2 hours later again. So I usually just end up taking him back to bed with me.

The pediatrician said that at this point there is no nutritional need for him wanting to nurse at night. It's comfort and habit now. She said it is now basically up to me when I want to wean him, but that when I/we am/are ready that would be the only solution she could think of to get him to stop wanting to nurse at night.

The other issue we have been having is that he can be a bit aggressive at times. He will often, and for no reason, bite, pinch and slap. What's worse is when I tell him "no" he usually looks up and laughs.

Well, I know this may be a point of controversy with some, but I agree with the ped's suggestion for the biting. She suggested that when he bits, to immediately put just a dab of liquid soap across his lips and tell him "no biting!". When he inevitably cries and cringes at the taste of the soap, immediately allow to drink something from his sippy cup. I'm sure some may find this mean or unnecessary but I will be doing this, because his biting really hurts. As for the pinching and slapping (which he doesn ot do nearly as often as the biting) she suggested to place his hands on his lap and tell him"no pinching/slapping" firmly.

Other than that, he is doing great and is a very happy little boy. :)